Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Current Perspectives on Opioid Prescribing
Recently, both insurance companies and politicians in the U.S. have intensified their efforts to limit patients undergoing wisdom teeth surgery to have access to opioids to manage their pain. See the posts on this site: 1) Insurance Companies Limiting Access to Opioids After Wisdom Teeth Surgery and 2) The Effect of Opioid Prescription Limits For Wisdom Teeth Removal. Such efforts have intensified due to recent research showing that opioid prescriptions taken by young adults following wisdom teeth removal has contributed to the opioid addiction and abuse epidemic in the U.S. However, lost in these conversations is the perspectives from oral and maxillofacial surgeons. According to the 2017 white paper by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) titled “Opioid Prescribing: Acute and Postoperative Pain Management,” these surgeons feel: “… the practitioner-patient relationship must be upheld, allowing for practitioner … Read more